Experimental platform to investigate laser-shocked matter at the SACLA X-ray free electron laser

The X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) is now widely recognized as a suitable tool for investigating states of matter and capturing fast phenomena under extreme conditions, such as high pressure or high temperature. Because of its unique features that are ultra-short, brilliant, and coherent in a hard X-ray regime, the XFEL allows one to access the unexplored area for any conventional diagnosing methods. At the SACLA XFEL facility in Japan, we have developed a dedicated platform for pump-probe experiments using both the high-power nanosecond laser and the XFEL. The laser pulse of 532-nm-wavelength with energies above 15 J in a 5-ns-duration generates a shock wave in the sample. The XFEL then probes the laser-irradiated sample, for example, via diffraction, scattering, or imaging. Here, the SACLA’s XFEL pulses contain photons of over 10¹¹ in a pulse duration of shorter than 10 fs. The brightness of the XFELs is beneficial for ultra-fast single-shot observations because such experiments are destructive in most cases. At the platform, some selected typical configurations are available with various X-ray detector options, such as large-area X-ray detectors for diffraction measurements and high-resolution X-ray microscopes for imaging. The experimental capabilities of the platform will be presented at the conference, besides the recent research activities and the perspectives of the platform.